Binghamton University - News ReleasesNews Releases from Binghamton Universityhttp://www.binghamton.edu/mpr/news-releases/
en-us"Upstate Revitalization Initiative - Food & Agriculture" topic of SUNY BEST<p>
BINGHAMTON, NY &ndash; Members of the SUNY Business and Education Cooperative of the Southern Tier (SUNY BEST) will discuss the New York Upstate Revitalization Initiative (URI) and how it will affect the food and agricultural industries at 10 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 7, in Room 220 at the Binghamton University Downtown Center, 67 Washington St., Binghamton. This presentation is free and open to the public.</p>
<p>
Binghamton University and the Southern Tier are among the winners in the Upstate Revitalization Initiative (URI), a competition among seven upstate regions for millions of dollars in funding to support projects identified by the Regional Economic Development Councils. Three of the seven regions deemed to have made the most compelling proposals for the funding have been designated "Best Plan Awardees" &ndash; including the Southern Tier &ndash; and each will receive $500 million.</p>
<p>
One of the four major categories proposed in the URI is the food and agriculture industry. Speakers Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo and Jan Nyrop, professor of enomology at Cornell University, will discuss how the URI will help the Southern Tier work towards transforming into a world-recognized leader in agriculture technology and serve as a key food supplier for the East Coast of the United States. &nbsp;According to officials, a strategic mix of projects will transform and grow agriculture and food production, processing and distribution across the region, while also strengthening links to growing tourism and manufacturing industries.</p>
<p>
Pre-registration for this discussion is required through the SUNY BEST website at <a href="http://sunybest.binghamton.edu/">http://sunybest.binghamton.edu/</a>. For additional information, e-mail <a href="mailto:sunybest@binghamton.edu">sunybest@binghamton.edu</a>.&nbsp;</p>
http://www.binghamton.edu/mpr/news-releases/news-release.html?id=2359
http://www.binghamton.edu/mpr/news-releases/news-release.html?id=2359Tue, 05 Jan 2016 00:00:00 -0500DefaultBinghamton University to host final Fall Commencement <p>
BINGHAMTON, NY -- More than 840 students, including 51 doctoral candidates, have completed the requirements to receive their degrees at Binghamton University this fall. Of those eligible, more than 450, 34 of them doctoral candidates, will walk across the stage during the University&rsquo;s final Fall Commencement ceremony at noon Sunday, Dec. 20, in the Events Center.</p>
<p>
This Fall Commencement will be the final one for Binghamton University. The University has held a Fall Commencement since 2007.</p>
<p>
"Between the expense, the sizable staff support required, the vagaries of December weather and the number of students who opt to participate, we believe that it is wise to join many of our peer institutions who do not offer Fall Commencement or who have cancelled them," said Donald Nieman, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs.</p>
<p>
Senior Joshua Wallenstein will represent all of the graduates as student speaker. A Binghamton native, Wallenstein transferred to Binghamton University in spring 2012. Aside from it being close to home, he chose Binghamton for its wide variety of majors and student groups that it offered, and chose to pursue his degree in human development.</p>
<p>
"I&#39;d been told that you get out of college what you put into it, and I knew that coming to Binghamton, I was bound to find something to throw myself into," said Wallenstein. "At first, I wasn&#39;t sure about the size of the school, it being much larger than I was searching for. However, I grew to enjoy the bit of anonymity, and the opportunity to meet someone new every day."</p>
http://www.binghamton.edu/mpr/news-releases/news-release.html?id=2358
http://www.binghamton.edu/mpr/news-releases/news-release.html?id=2358Wed, 16 Dec 2015 00:00:00 -0500DefaultBinghamton University professor launches web tool to track impact of drugs worldwide <p>
BINGHAMTON, NY &ndash; Billions of dollars have been spent on developing drugs and supplying them around the world, but which companies&rsquo; drugs are actually making an impact? The Global Health Impact Index, headed by Binghamton University Associate Professor Nicole Hassoun and highlighted in a new article published Friday in <em>PLOS ONE</em>, addresses this issue by ranking pharmaceutical companies based on their drugs&rsquo; impact on global health. VIDEO: http://youtu.be/2rn5nRmyhOI</p>
<p>
The Global Health Impact Index considers how companies drugs measure up on the basis of their impact on the "big three" infectious diseases: malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. While previous indexes have measured the need for different drugs worldwide, the Global Health Impact Index is the first to measure the actual impact of these drugs.</p>
<p>
"People have focused on measuring the need for different drugs&hellip;but we&rsquo;re looking at the impact that they&rsquo;re actually having," said Hassoun. "This is important for setting goals, evaluating performance &mdash; trying to have a bigger impact on global health and saving millions of lives."</p>
<p>
The index looks at three things: the need for several important drugs for tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and malaria; the drugs&rsquo; effectiveness; and the number of people who can access the drugs. Each company&rsquo;s score is the sum of its drugs&rsquo; impacts.</p>
<p>
According to the index, the companies whose drugs having the most impact on the "big three" diseases are:</p>
<p>
&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Sanofi</p>
<p>
&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Novartis</p>
<p>
&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Pfizer</p>
<p>
The following companies&rsquo; drugs had the lowest drug impact scores on the index:</p>
<p>
&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Eli Lilly</p>
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&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Kyorin Pharmaceutical Co.</p>
<p>
&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Bayer Healthcare</p>
<p>
"We are looking at the outcomes of the drugs that the companies hold, so the actual impact on death and disability," said Hassoun. "We&rsquo;re looking at the amount of death and disability that the company&rsquo;s drugs are alleviating."</p>
<p>
Hassoun hopes to motivate pharmaceutical companies to meet the health needs of impoverished people around the world through an initiative supported by Academics Stand Against Poverty (ASAP), an international professional association focused on helping poverty researchers and teachers enhance their positive impact on severe poverty.</p>
<p>
According to Hassoun and ASAP, one third of all deaths globally, about 18 million per year, are linked to poverty, because people living in poverty cannot afford medicines and pharmaceutical companies do not have the financial incentive to develop treatments for diseases that primarily affect impoverished people.</p>
<p>
By better understanding the impacts of companies&rsquo; products on the burden of disease, said Hassoun, researchers can have a tool for measuring impact; governments, donors, etc. can better target their efforts; and companies can be incentivized to focus on impact.</p>
<p>
Hassoun&rsquo;s manuscript, "The Global Health Impact Index: Promoting Global Health" was published Dec. 11 in <em>PLOS ONE</em>.</p>
<p>
Visit the Global Health Impact Index at http://global-health-impact.org/. For more information, contact Hassoun at nhassoun@binghamton.edu.&nbsp;</p>
http://www.binghamton.edu/mpr/news-releases/news-release.html?id=2356
http://www.binghamton.edu/mpr/news-releases/news-release.html?id=2356Mon, 14 Dec 2015 00:00:00 -0500DefaultPsychotherapy treatment associated with changes in brain activity in borderline personality disorder patients <p>
BINGHAMTON, NY &ndash; According to newly published research, a specialized psychotherapy has been linked to changes in activation patterns in certain areas of the brain in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD), suggesting its impact may go deeper than symptom change.</p>
<p>
A team of researchers from Harvard, Cornell and Binghamton University, which included Mark F. Lenzenweger, distinguished professor of psychology at Binghamton University, recruited ten women with BPD from the New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical College and conducted this neuroimaging study using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) methods. These patients were treated for one year with transference-focused psychotherapy (TFP), an evidence-based treatment proven to reduce symptoms across multiple cognitive&ndash;emotional domains in BPD. Treatment with TFP was associated with relative activation increases in cognitive control areas and relative decreases in areas associated with emotional reactivity. According to researchers, these findings suggest that TFP may potentially facilitate symptom improvement in BPD.</p>
<p>
"These findings represent the genuine frontier of clinical science in understanding the effects of psychotherapy," said Lenzenweger. "Think of it &mdash; talk therapy that impacts neural or brain functioning."</p>
<p>
"These results advance our currently limited understanding of neural mechanisms associated with psychodynamically oriented psychotherapy," wrote the researchers. "Activation in [certain parts of the brain] was associated with improvements in behavioral constraint, emotional regulation and/or aggression in patients with BPD."</p>
<p>
The study, "Frontolimbic neural circuit changes in emotional processing and inhibitory control associated with clinical improvement following transference-focused psychotherapy in borderline personality disorder," was published online Oct. 8 in <em>Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences</em>.</p>
<p>
This research was supported, in part, by The Dworman Foundation and the Department of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medical College.</p>
http://www.binghamton.edu/mpr/news-releases/news-release.html?id=2357
http://www.binghamton.edu/mpr/news-releases/news-release.html?id=2357Mon, 14 Dec 2015 00:00:00 -0500DefaultStudy: Text messages that end in a period seen as less sincere<p>
BINGHAMTON, NY &ndash; If you don&rsquo;t want to send the wrong message, watch how you punctuate your texts. Text messages that end with a period are perceived to be less sincere than messages that do not, according to newly published research from Binghamton University.</p>
<p>
A team of researchers led by Celia Klin, associate professor of psychology and associate dean at Binghamton University&rsquo;s Harpur College, recruited 126 Binghamton undergraduates, who read a series of exchanges that appeared either as text messages or as handwritten notes. In the 16 experimental exchanges, the sender&#39;s message contained a statement followed by an invitation phrased as a question (e.g., Dave gave me his extra tickets. Wanna come?). The receiver&#39;s response was an affirmative one-word response (Okay, Sure, Yeah, Yup). There were two versions of each experimental exchange: one in which the receiver&#39;s response ended with a period and one in which it did not end with any punctuation. Based on the participants&rsquo; responses, text messages that ended with a period were rated as less sincere than text messages that did not end with a period. &nbsp;</p>
<p>
According to Klin, these results indicate that punctuation influences the perceived meaning of text messages. Even though most of the important social and contextual cues were missing, the sincerity of the short messages was evaluated differently depending on the presence or absence of a period.</p>
<p>
"Texting is lacking many of the social cues used in actual face-to-face conversations. When speaking, people easily convey social and emotional information with eye gaze, facial expressions, tone of voice, pauses, and so on," said Klin. "People obviously can&rsquo;t use these mechanisms when they are texting. Thus, it makes sense that texters rely on what they have available to them &mdash; emoticons, deliberate misspellings that mimic speech sounds and, according to our data, punctuation."</p>
<p>
In some very recent follow-up work, Klin&rsquo;s team found that a text response with an exclamation mark is interpreted as more, rather than less, sincere.</p>
<p>
"That&rsquo;s not surprising, but it broadens our claim," said Klin. "Punctuation is used and understood by texters to convey emotions and other social and pragmatic information. Given that people are wonderfully adept at communicating complex and nuanced information in conversations, it&rsquo;s not surprising that as texting evolves, people are finding ways to convey the same types of information in their texts."</p>
<p>
The study, "Texting insincerely: the role of the period&nbsp;in&nbsp;text messaging," was published Nov. 22 in <em>Computers in Human Behavior</em>.</p>
http://www.binghamton.edu/mpr/news-releases/news-release.html?id=2354
http://www.binghamton.edu/mpr/news-releases/news-release.html?id=2354Tue, 08 Dec 2015 00:00:00 -0500DefaultBinghamton University offers business startup training program<p>
BINGHAMTON, NY -- The Binghamton University Small Business Development Center (SBDC) will offer a small business startup training program at 222 Water St. in downtown Binghamton.</p>
<p>
Participants will learn from professionals on how to assess, plan and start up a business over three consecutive Thursdays: January 7, 14 and 21. Classes will run from 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. each day.</p>
<p>
Participants will discover the basics of owning a business and learn how to develop a business plan, including market research, focusing on marketing strategies, competitive analysis, pricing and more.</p>
<p>
All three sessions are included in the price of $75. To register, make a check payable to The Research Foundation of SUNY and mail it to: Small Business Development Center, Binghamton University, P.O. Box 6000, Binghamton, NY 13902-6000. The deadline for registration is Friday, Jan 1.</p>
<p>
For more information, <a href="http://www.binghamton.edu/sbdc/services/startup.html.">go online</a>.&nbsp;For a class program and to enroll, contact Carrie McKeiver at the SBDC 607-777-4024, or e-mail <a href="mailto:sbdc@binghamton.edu">sbdc@binghamton.edu</a>. Class size is limited. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
http://www.binghamton.edu/mpr/news-releases/news-release.html?id=2355
http://www.binghamton.edu/mpr/news-releases/news-release.html?id=2355Tue, 08 Dec 2015 00:00:00 -0500DefaultBinghamton University to host gift-wrapping party for Project SAnta toy drive<p>
BINGHAMTON, NY &ndash; Binghamton University will hold a gift-wrapping party for the 26th annual Student Association Holiday Toy Drive, Project SAnta, from 11 a.m.-3 p.m.&nbsp;Monday, Dec. 7, in Old Union Hall, in the University Union, on campus.</p>
<p>
Project SAnta is a program that provides underprivileged children from the Binghamton community with gifts for the holiday season. Binghamton University&rsquo;s Student Association pairs up with social workers from all the local elementary and intermediate schools in the Greater Binghamton community to identify high-need children and their wish lists. The Student Association supplies offices and organizations at Binghamton University with the opportunity to sponsor a family in need, looking for sponsors both on- and off-campus. The Student&nbsp;Association&nbsp;is sponsoring&nbsp;70&nbsp;children&nbsp;this year.&nbsp;</p>
http://www.binghamton.edu/mpr/news-releases/news-release.html?id=2353
http://www.binghamton.edu/mpr/news-releases/news-release.html?id=2353Mon, 07 Dec 2015 00:00:00 -0500Default"PACE" and "76 West" topics of SUNY BEST<p >
The SUNY Business and Education Cooperative of the Southern Tier (SUNY BEST) will host an event featuring two speakers who will address &quot;PACE Financing&quot; and &quot;76 West&quot; at 10 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 3, in Room 220 at the Binghamton University Downtown Center, 67 Washington St., Binghamton. This presentation is free and open to the public.</p>
<p >
As the Southern Tier region continues to position itself as a smart energy leader, this event will showcase two key elements of a successful Southern Tier energy strategy. Joseph Del Sindaco, advisor to the Energy Improvement Corporation of New York State, will speak on PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy), a program that if the municipal taxing authority agrees, allows property owners to install clean energy technology and pay for it over time as an additional line on their property tax bill. Michael Shimazu, senior advisor for business growth and innovation at NYSERDA, is the project manager for the NYS initiative, &quot;76 West.&quot; This $20 million Southern Tier-only competition will support the growth of clean energy companies in the region through competitive prizes totaling $100,000 to $1 million.</p>
<p >
Pre-registration for this discussion is required through the SUNY BEST website at http://sunybest.binghamton.edu/. For additional information, e-mail <a href="mailto:sunybest@binghamton.edu">sunybest@binghamton.edu</a>.</p>
<p >
SUNY BEST, a community development and outreach enterprise of Binghamton University, represents a volunteer group comprised of senior staff members from key economic and educational institutions in the Southern Tier. The group works to forge strong alliances, strengthen industry specific needs, and provide information and outreach for business.</p>
http://www.binghamton.edu/mpr/news-releases/news-release.html?id=2352
http://www.binghamton.edu/mpr/news-releases/news-release.html?id=2352Mon, 30 Nov 2015 00:00:00 -0500DefaultStudy: Earth's climate more sensitive to CO2 than previously thought<p>
BINGHAMTON, NY &ndash; Ancient climates on Earth may have been more sensitive to carbon dioxide than was previously thought, according to new research from Binghamton University.</p>
<p>
A team of Binghamton University researchers including geology PhD student Elliot A. Jagniecki and professors Tim Lowenstein, David Jenkins and Robert Demicco examined nahcolite crystals found in Colorado&rsquo;s Green River Formation, formed 50 million years old during a hothouse climate. They found that CO2 levels during this time may have been as low as 680 parts per million (ppm), nearly half the 1,125 ppm predicted by previous experiments. The new data suggests that past predictions significantly underestimate the impact of greenhouse warming and that Earth&rsquo;s climate may be more sensitive to increased carbon dioxide than was once thought, said Lowenstein.</p>
<p>
"The significance of this is that CO2 50 million years ago may not have been as high as we once thought it was, but the climate back then was significantly warmer than it is today," said Lowenstein.</p>
<p>
CO2 levels in the atmosphere today have reached 400 ppm. According to current projections, doubling the CO2 will result in a rise in the global average temperature of 3 degrees Centigrade. This new research suggests that the effects of CO2 on global warming may be underestimated.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
"Take notice that carbon dioxide 50 million years ago may not have been as high as we once thought it was. We may reach that level in the next century, and so the climate change from that increase could be pretty severe, pretty dramatic. CO2 and other climate forcings may be more important for global warming than we realized."</p>
<p>
The only direct measurement of carbon dioxide is from ice cores, which only go back less than 1 million years. Lowenstein and his team are trying to develop ways to estimate ancient carbon dioxide in the atmosphere using indirect proxies. He said that their approach is different than any ever undertaken.</p>
<p>
"These are direct chemical measurements that are based on equilibrium thermodynamics," he said. "These are direct laboratory experiments, so I think they&rsquo;re really reliable.</p>
<p>
Lowenstein wants to look at nahcolite deposits in China to confirm the results found in Colorado.</p>
<p>
The study, "Eocene atmospheric CO2&nbsp;from the nahcolite proxy," was published Oct. 23 in <em>Geology</em>.</p>
http://www.binghamton.edu/mpr/news-releases/news-release.html?id=2350
http://www.binghamton.edu/mpr/news-releases/news-release.html?id=2350Mon, 16 Nov 2015 00:00:00 -0500DefaultBinghamton University professor develops framework for teaching networks <p>
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. &ndash; A framework co-developed by a Binghamton University researcher could help future scientists improve their understanding of all types of networks, from social media channels to beehives.</p>
<p>
Hiroki Sayama, director of the Center for Collective Dynamics of Complex Systems and associate professor of systems science and industrial engineering at Binghamton University, co-led a team of over 30 network science researchers, educators, teachers and students to set up a framework that any school can adapt to teach students the concept of a network from the ground up.</p>
<p>
"The concept of networks is truly interdisciplinary and knowing about general properties of networks allows students to see common patterns across disciplines, and thereby transcend disciplinary boundaries," Sayama said. "It would be wonderful to see students studying various subjects &mdash; languages, history, social phenomena, biological organisms, engineered products, the Internet &mdash; all from a common lens of networks."</p>
<p>
Sayama, along with co-authors Catherine Cramer, Mason A. Porter, Lori Sheetz and Stephen Uzzo, created seven concepts that characterize any network, ranging from Facebook to food webs. The research was driven by one key question: What should every person living in the 21st century know about networks by the time they finish secondary education? The sooner future scientists know these core ideas, the sooner they can make networks around us &mdash; ranging from financial markets to transportation networks &mdash; more efficient, cost-effective and safe, for example.</p>
<p>
"Networks can be learned by people of all ages with different learning or instruction methods," said Sayama. "Middle- and high-school-aged students will be best to start learning about networks in a generalized, abstract manner."</p>
<p>
The team also created a booklet titled "Network Literacy: Essential Concepts and Core Ideas," with breakdowns teachers can use in the classroom or for planning. "While they are nearly equally important, we arranged the concepts in the order of how easy and straightforward the concept is," Sayama said. "The earlier concepts are easier to understand for everyone, while the latter ones &mdash; especially six and seven &mdash; may need more thinking and learning to fully grasp what they mean."</p>
<p>
The project was done in collaboration with the New York Hall of Science, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the University of Oxford in England. The booklet has been translated into eight different languages so far, including Persian, Japanese and German. The booklet is freely available online at <a href="http://tinyurl.com/networkliteracy">http://tinyurl.com/networkliteracy</a>.</p>
<p>
The paper, titled "What Are Essential Concepts About Networks?" appeared in <em>The Journal of Complex Networks</em> on Nov. 12.</p>
http://www.binghamton.edu/mpr/news-releases/news-release.html?id=2349
http://www.binghamton.edu/mpr/news-releases/news-release.html?id=2349Thu, 12 Nov 2015 00:00:00 -0500Default